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Title: | Body-size shifts in aquatic and terrestrial urban communities | Authors: | Merckx, Thomas Souffreau, Caroline Kaiser, Aurelien Baardsen, Lisa F. Backeljau, Thierry Bonte, Dries Brans, Kristien, I Cours, Marie Dahirel, Maxime Debortoli, Nicolas De Wolf, Katrien Engelen, Jessie M. T. Fontaneto, Diego Gianuca, Andros T. Govaert, Lynn Hendrickx, Frederik Higuti, Janet Lens, Luc Martens, Koen Matheve, Hans Matthysen, Erik Piano, Elena Sablon, Rose SCHON, Isa Van Doninck, Karine De Meester, Luc Van Dyck, Hans |
Issue Date: | 2018 | Publisher: | NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP | Source: | NATURE, 558(7708), p. 113-116 | Abstract: | Body size is intrinsically linked to metabolic rate and life-history traits, and is a crucial determinant of food webs and community dynamics(1,2). The increased temperatures associated with the urban-heat-island effect result in increased metabolic costs and are expected to drive shifts to smaller body sizes'. Urban environments are, however, also characterized by substantial habitat fragmentation', which favours mobile species. Here, using a replicated, spatially nested sampling design across ten animal taxonomic groups, we show that urban communities generally consist of smaller species. In addition, although we show urban warming for three habitat types and associated reduced community-weighted mean body sizes for four taxa, three taxa display a shift to larger species along the urbanization gradients. Our results show that the general trend towards smaller-sized species is overruled by filtering for larger species when there is positive covariation between size and dispersal, a process that can mitigate the low connectivity of ecological resources in urban settings(5). We thus demonstrate that the urban-heat-island effect and urban habitat fragmentation are associated with contrasting community-level shifts in body size that critically depend on the association between body size and dispersal. Because body size determines the structure and dynamics of ecological networks(1), such shifts may affect urban ecosystem function. | Notes: | [Merckx, Thomas; Kaiser, Aurelien; Van Dyck, Hans] Catholic Univ Louvain, Biodivers Res Ctr, Earth & Life Inst, Behav Ecol & Conservat Grp, Louvain La Neuve, Belgium. [Souffreau, Caroline; Brans, Kristien, I; Engelen, Jessie M. T.; Gianuca, Andros T.; Govaert, Lynn; De Meester, Luc] Katholieke Univ Leuven, Lab Aquat Ecol Evolut & Conservat, Leuven, Belgium. [Baardsen, Lisa F.; Backeljau, Thierry; Matthysen, Erik] Univ Antwerp, Evolutionary Ecol Grp, Antwerp, Belgium. [Backeljau, Thierry; De Wolf, Katrien; Hendrickx, Frederik; Piano, Elena; Sablon, Rose] Royal Belgian Inst Nat Sci, Directorate Taxon & Phylogeny, Brussels, Belgium. [Bonte, Dries; Dahirel, Maxime; Hendrickx, Frederik; Lens, Luc; Matheve, Hans] Univ Ghent, Biol Dept, Terr Ecol Unit, Ghent, Belgium. [Cours, Marie; Martens, Koen; Schon, Isa] Royal Belgian Inst Nat Sci, Directorate Nat Environm, Brussels, Belgium. [Dahirel, Maxime] Univ Rennes, CNRS, ECOBIO Ecosyst Biodiversite Evolut, Rennes, France. [Debortoli, Nicolas; Van Doninck, Karine] Univ Namur, Lab Evolutionary Genet & Ecol, NAXYS, URBE, Namur, Belgium. [Fontaneto, Diego] CNR, Inst Ecosyst Study, Verbania, Italy. [Gianuca, Andros T.] German Ctr Integrat Biodivers Res iDiv, Halle, Germany. [Gianuca, Andros T.] UFZ Helmholtz Ctr Environm Res, Dept Community Ecol, Halle, Germany. [Higuti, Janet] Univ Estadual Maringa, Ctr Res Limnol Ichthyol & Aquaculture PEA, Maringa, Parana, Brazil. [Martens, Koen] Univ Ghent, Biol Dept, Limnol Res Unit, Ghent, Belgium. [Piano, Elena] Univ Turin, Dept Life Sci & Syst Biol, Turin, Italy. [Schon, Isa] Univ Hasselt, Zool Res Grp, Hasselt, Belgium. | Document URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/1942/28608 | ISSN: | 0028-0836 | e-ISSN: | 1476-4687 | DOI: | 10.1038/s41586-018-0140-0 | ISI #: | 000434273300047 | Category: | A1 | Type: | Journal Contribution | Validations: | ecoom 2019 |
Appears in Collections: | Research publications |
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s41586-018-0140-0.pdf Restricted Access | Published version | 6.93 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open Request a copy |
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